This DIY Turns An Old Computer Into Neat Home Storage

As time passes and you accrue more belongings, tech in particular, you may end up with a lot of unused old gear. You could trash it or recycle it the old-fashioned way, or you could repurpose it. There are clever ways to reuse old electronics, and it's always best when you can find a functional use that extends their purpose. Take, for example, some of the ingenious ways you can breathe new life into your old desktop PC towers. Turning them into a usable pet habitat (like a cat home) creating a hidden safe or compartment, and using them as a doorstop are all good ways to "retower" them. But there's one DIY project that makes a lot of sense, especially since buying shelves and building storage space can be pricey. It involves taking that old PC case you have lying around and turning it into makeshift storage.

You can stack items inside the chassis without doing anything else, which would work, of course, but it might not look as pretty as tidying up the case. You could also paint and finish it with colors and styling of your choice, then add shelf space inside. The first step is to remove components like the power supply, motherboard, and other internals to make an entirely open space. If the case is already dual-layered with a middle section or shelf inside, great. If not, you can cut wood or find material pieces to fit inside, securing them using the existing component trays and fasteners.

From there, you can repurpose or customize the hardware. You can paint or refinish the case, open it up by taking the sides off, or add fans and RGB lighting. Keep in mind that you'll need a power source if you plan to use lighting or other powered elements. Adding extra materials like wood or metal sheeting cut to size can create dividers and shelves. You can mount those using makeshift brackets, the existing fastener holes, or move around internals, like a built-in drive bay. One Instructables guide even recommends stacking towers on top of one another and securing them to a wall using screws and the existing holes. That's going to work only if you have a sizable trove of cases, though.

Additional ideas for reusing the PC tower as storage include making a traditional bookshelf, laying it down flat as a pseudo lock box or storage bin, and using materials to build a display case for other collectibles like Lego builds and figurines. If you want to get fancy, you can turn the entire thing into a fish tank or aquarium, though it may take a lot of work to create a waterproof seal for the cracks and crevices. The aquarium idea is probably better to attempt with an old computer tower you're never going to use again, though.

The beauty of using a PC tower as DIY storage is that it's fairly simple, easy to visualize, and easy to set up. You shouldn't need much else either, depending on what the case offers already. You can't do this with a laptop case, unfortunately, as they're too slim, but there are other neat ways to repurpose an old laptop, especially if it still works.